Clip Clop to Clip Mobile!

Our interview with founder and coupon king: Dave Offierski.

Courtesy of Mushy Pony

We all want to save money where we can – but are we really going to save every crumpled-up coupon that arrives in our mailbox? Enter Clip Mobile, a free application that uses GPS to inform you about the nearest deals relative to your location. Sitting with their founder, a young and judicious entrepreneur named Dave Offierski, we learned more about how he started the company and how exactly this thing works.

Dave: There are more and more people wanting to get the most out of their phone these days, and we feel that the landscape and the level of competition in Canada is ripe for the picking in terms of hyper-local, high value content. What’s around me, and where can I get a deal. I think people want to have their phone compartmentalized like their wallet – they want the go-to app for their news, their friends, their headlines, their bank; so presumably there should be an app for their deals as well.

Pony: And where do the companies offering these deals come in?

Dave: Well, what we’ve done is built a product that works as well for the paying consumers as it does for the local merchants driving sales and gaining information about them to help build their brand. Clip is really that call to action: a method to help them acquire their consumer.

Pony: But how do you make money with an app that’s free to download?

Dave: We charge costs per unique impression. We can track each user and the messages that get sent to their phone from the company in a timely fashion. It’s a lot easier and more efficient than putting it on a billboard let’s say, or direct mail. We collect the analytics to tell how many people redeemed your offer, how many looked at it, which the company can then use for insight purposes. They pay us for that.

Pony: And how many people are using this app right now?

Dave: There have been 6,000 downloads to date; on both iPhone and Android. And now that we’ve got some bigger strategies with bigger partners (RIM) we can drive awareness through their media to help the adoption.

Pony: This all sounds pretty complex. How did you develop or get the software for Clip?

Dave: We figured out earlier on, “why try and reinvent the wheel?” So in terms of software development, we all use the same tools that Apple, RIM, and Android give us. Clip Mobile was just the first to get to Canada, which let me get to the market well ahead of my competitors. We’re expecting more competition down the road, but with our established partners we should be okay.

Pony: So once you had the idea, how did you go about starting the company?

Dave: I’d been working through the Mars Discovery District and they have some great programs like the Entrepreneurial Lecture series that take place on Wednesday nights in the Fall and Winter. It’s fantastic, they bring in various CEO’s, CMO’s etc. – start-up guys who have all done it. Anyone interested in starting their own business should check it out. It’s free as well! Then at the end of the year you can pitch an idea in this competition they throw, and I worked with a great mentor to help prepare mine; so that was the genesis really of taking Clip from point A to point B.

Courtesy of Facebook

Pony: How many people are in your team?

Dave: I have a CTO and a Chief User Experience designer in Colorado working on the technical side of things. Then I have a sales team here working remotely – very much a typical start-up model but it’s allowed us to have a low overhead, which is essential.

Pony: Speaking of overhead, have you noticed that Holt Renfrew offers free valet parking right now?

Dave: I did not know that. I’ll make sure that gets on Clip!

Pony: That’s good.

Dave: There are deals out there that our users want to know about – such as valet parking at Holts. Cineplex had Telus Tuesdays all summer, which is a half-price ticket with popcorn. McDonalds offered free coffee in the mornings. Why wouldn’t you want to know about that? I walked into a sub restaurant the other day, and there was a stack of coupons on the counter. So I picked one up – and the guy working there pulls it out of my hand and hands it back to me. He was like: “I’m supposed to give that to you.” But to print thousands of pieces of paper, all for someone who’s already standing inside the store is just flawed to me! Another feature we’re offering right now is preferred merchants – so you can make a short-list of the places you want to see coupons from and get push notifications on when something new comes up. That way, you’re always in the know.

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To learn more about Clip, head over to their website here or check out their blog for updates, saving tips, and answers to FAQ’s. Happy saving, ponies!

– Emma Farquharson.